Alyssa Michaud, PhD

Alyssa Michaud is a musicologist who works at the intersections of music, technology, and culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A Calgary native and alumna of Ambrose University, she also holds an M.A. from the University of Ottawa and a Ph.D. from McGill University. Alyssa has presented her work on the cultural conceptions of automation technology at conferences in Canada, the U.S., and Japan, and her most recent work appears in the current edition of Keyboard Perspectives. Currently, her research focuses on the relationship between technology and live musical performance, examining the dynamics between audiences and artists in today’s technologically mediated society. Outside of her work in musicology, Alyssa keeps one foot in the performance world as a handbell and choral director, having served as the regular and guest conductor for church ensembles across Canada. She currently directs the handbell program at First Baptist Church in Calgary.

RECENT CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

“Automating Musicianship: Amateur Pianists and the Player Piano, 1898–1920,” American Musicological Society National Conference, Rochester, NY, forthcoming 2017.

“The Amateur Musician in the Age of the Player Piano,” Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, Ithaca, NY, May 2017.

“No One in the Spotlight: The Rise of Holographic Performance in the East and West,” International Musicological Society Quinquennial Congress, Tokyo, Japan, March 2017.

“`Fiction into Fact’: Uncovering the Lost History of the Robb Wave Organ,” Canadian University Music Society National Conference in conjunction with the Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Calgary, AB, May 2016.

“Listening to Vacuum Tubes: Divergent Reception Histories of Early Electronic Organs,” Columbia Music Scholarship Conference, New York, NY, February 2016.